Testimonies of Miraculous Healing and Deliverance
Here are some real testimonies of the power of God and the glorious, wonder-working, victorious blood of Jesus from the mission field. This page is not meant to be an exhaustive database of everything the Lord is doing and has done in our midst, but is meant to highlight some of the truly gracious manifestations of the power of the Gospel, that God may get the glory and His Son Jesus be magnified, and that unbelievers might believe, and the faith of the saints be edified. "Not unto us, O LORD, not unto us, but unto thy name give glory, for thy mercy, and for thy truth's sake" (Psalms 115:1).
Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned. And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover. So then after the Lord had spoken unto them, he was received up into heaven, and sat on the right hand of God. And they went forth, and preached every where, the Lord working with them, and confirming the word with signs following. Amen. - Mark 16:15-20
October 2009 - A Sciatic Nerve Problem Healed?
Recently, as I was open air preaching and Lina was translating, we finished by inviting people to come forward to hear more about the Gospel, have their questions answered, receive Gospels of John, or to receive prayer. An old man came forward very slowly, limping and stumbling very slowly, obviously having a great difficulty walking. As he approached, he told us that he had a sciatic nerve problem and that nothing he does can cause the pain to be relieved. No matter which way he stands, or sits, or lays, it hurts just the same, and he could hardly walk. So in faith, the man asked for prayer. We prayed and laid hands on him in the name of Jesus, and the pain ceased. He told us that it felt warm when we were praying, and that it doesn't hurt any more. Then he quickly walked off without limping and without any difficulting walking! Actually, he walked off so fast that we didn't even get a chance to talk to him any more, and barely managed to get a Gospel of John in his hands!
December 2008 - Awakening and Deliverance in Mexican Prison
Before departing from our last place, we were able to deliver a farewell message to our congregation of men in the prison. I was praying earnestly that God would grant these men eyes to see the reality of what we would preach about and come down with power one last time. I was praying that this last message would make a great impact on their hearts, speak to their consciences, and by the power of the Holy Spirit awaken them to see their exceeding sinfulness and of Christ’s great mercy and finished work in salvation.
By grace, my prayer was answered to some measure. The message went well, and by the help of the blessed Spirit I was able to preach a summary of all the major truths of the Gospel we’ve emphasized since ministering there, and to plead with the men to renounce their life of sin and self-seeking and to cry out to Christ in faith with importunate desperation. I was able to put them in remembrance briefly, one last time, of the major doctrines of the Gospel we had constantly preached: the depravity of sinful man, the lawful use of the Law (what it’s for and what it’s not for), the fearfulness of Judgment Day, the Godhead and glory of Christ, the finished work of the Cross, the propitiation of the blood, the triumph of the resurrection, the Second Coming of the Lord of glory, the reality of the Holy Spirit in the believer’s life, the power to have victory over sin, the reality of knowing God intimately as our Father who loves us, the graveness of eternity, the terrors of Hell and the consolations of Heaven.
By the grace of God, the word was attended by a blessed degree of power to a couple of the precious souls present, particularly to a couple we have been praying for. At the end of the message as we began to close in prayer, all of a sudden what seemed to be a grave conviction of sin fell upon them with divine force. The result was that the men dropped to their knees in brokenness and soon was heard sobs, cries, and groans and what seemed to be nothing short of anguish. Tears and snot hit the ground and cries for mercy hit the Heavens. Demons began to flee from one of the men crying out, as he wailed before God, demons manifested and left their habitation from his body, the light of Christ blasting out the powers of darkness.
At first, that is, before the demons began to flee, I was thinking that perhaps this was merely hysterical or the result of some wild emotional response to the message or to the fact that we were leaving. I know the dangers of spurious repentance and of humanistic emotional responses to certain truths of the Gospel, and I worried that these men were not truly broken for their sin before God, but as the result of some sort of wild enthusiasm. However, by the nature of their prayers and what they were crying out to God for, it began to become evident that they were indeed awakened to divine truth. I could do nothing but pray with them. And the fact that the repentance produced was one which caused demons to flee seemed to be good evidence that this man wasn’t just groaning or weeping in emotion, but was repenting and believing in faith, causing the powers of darkness to loose their hold of him.
Now this was something significant. After the prayers, the men could not talk to us without breaking down and wailing at the top of their lungs. Both of them had told us that they want to be preachers. One of them has had the same dream at least 3 or more times, that he was standing on a raised platform preaching to a great number of people with a great joy in his countenance, telling all that Christ was real. I believe this was a genuine work of grace in that little prison chapel that night and hope with all my heart that it will bear lasting fruit before the Throne. Please pray for these two men, their names are Catolino and Ricardo.
Where does this happen today, in today’s professing church? I believe one of the greatest reasons why we rarely see this is because the message that is preached in many places is not a pure message. Men need to cry out, “What must I do to be saved” just like they did in the New Testament –this should be quite normal. But we don’t see it because we’ve drifted so far away from the Biblical Gospel of the Kingdom. The old-fashioned Gospel still gets the old-fashioned results. That is, what we read in the book of Acts will happen today if we will walk in the same measure of grace that they walked in and minister the same Gospel in truth and purity. Let’s get back to the Gospel! It’s about Christ, His Person, His work, His honor, His glory, His triumph, His perfection, His Kingdom, His eternal reign at the right hand of God forever. May no flesh glory in His presence!
By grace, my prayer was answered to some measure. The message went well, and by the help of the blessed Spirit I was able to preach a summary of all the major truths of the Gospel we’ve emphasized since ministering there, and to plead with the men to renounce their life of sin and self-seeking and to cry out to Christ in faith with importunate desperation. I was able to put them in remembrance briefly, one last time, of the major doctrines of the Gospel we had constantly preached: the depravity of sinful man, the lawful use of the Law (what it’s for and what it’s not for), the fearfulness of Judgment Day, the Godhead and glory of Christ, the finished work of the Cross, the propitiation of the blood, the triumph of the resurrection, the Second Coming of the Lord of glory, the reality of the Holy Spirit in the believer’s life, the power to have victory over sin, the reality of knowing God intimately as our Father who loves us, the graveness of eternity, the terrors of Hell and the consolations of Heaven.
By the grace of God, the word was attended by a blessed degree of power to a couple of the precious souls present, particularly to a couple we have been praying for. At the end of the message as we began to close in prayer, all of a sudden what seemed to be a grave conviction of sin fell upon them with divine force. The result was that the men dropped to their knees in brokenness and soon was heard sobs, cries, and groans and what seemed to be nothing short of anguish. Tears and snot hit the ground and cries for mercy hit the Heavens. Demons began to flee from one of the men crying out, as he wailed before God, demons manifested and left their habitation from his body, the light of Christ blasting out the powers of darkness.
At first, that is, before the demons began to flee, I was thinking that perhaps this was merely hysterical or the result of some wild emotional response to the message or to the fact that we were leaving. I know the dangers of spurious repentance and of humanistic emotional responses to certain truths of the Gospel, and I worried that these men were not truly broken for their sin before God, but as the result of some sort of wild enthusiasm. However, by the nature of their prayers and what they were crying out to God for, it began to become evident that they were indeed awakened to divine truth. I could do nothing but pray with them. And the fact that the repentance produced was one which caused demons to flee seemed to be good evidence that this man wasn’t just groaning or weeping in emotion, but was repenting and believing in faith, causing the powers of darkness to loose their hold of him.
Now this was something significant. After the prayers, the men could not talk to us without breaking down and wailing at the top of their lungs. Both of them had told us that they want to be preachers. One of them has had the same dream at least 3 or more times, that he was standing on a raised platform preaching to a great number of people with a great joy in his countenance, telling all that Christ was real. I believe this was a genuine work of grace in that little prison chapel that night and hope with all my heart that it will bear lasting fruit before the Throne. Please pray for these two men, their names are Catolino and Ricardo.
Where does this happen today, in today’s professing church? I believe one of the greatest reasons why we rarely see this is because the message that is preached in many places is not a pure message. Men need to cry out, “What must I do to be saved” just like they did in the New Testament –this should be quite normal. But we don’t see it because we’ve drifted so far away from the Biblical Gospel of the Kingdom. The old-fashioned Gospel still gets the old-fashioned results. That is, what we read in the book of Acts will happen today if we will walk in the same measure of grace that they walked in and minister the same Gospel in truth and purity. Let’s get back to the Gospel! It’s about Christ, His Person, His work, His honor, His glory, His triumph, His perfection, His Kingdom, His eternal reign at the right hand of God forever. May no flesh glory in His presence!
November 2008 - Deliverance in a Mexican Prison
We have been steady laboring at this prison where we’re preaching in the chapel every Sunday. We are also visiting normally on Wednesdays as well, during visiting hours, to talk with men personally and minister to them individually.
I believe the Lord is really blessing our meetings on Sundays and confirming His word by His Spirit with conviction as we preach and teach on basic Gospel truths, emphasizing the Person and work of Christ, freedom from sin’s dominion, deliverance from Satan, true conversion, victorious Christian living, seeking the face of God, and so on. These men are hearing things they’ve never heard before, and things that are contrary to what all these other false religions are teaching them. In this prison, in addition to battling unbelief and sin of every kind, we are battling 7th Day Adventist doctrines, Jehovah-Witnesses, Catholics, humanistic psychologies, and more. It’s a real spiritual warfare going on as we earnestly contend for the faith and try to establish solid, pure, true Gospel foundations.
Some strongholds are being demolished in some of these men as we yield the weapon of the Word and hack and slash against these demonic powers.
In one meeting, as I was expounding on 1 John chapter 1 against hypocritical profession and about the nature of God as light, a young man 22 years of age broke down and wept, and interrupted saying, “I need to get right”. We dropped to our knees and started praying for him, as he did too, asking God to cleanse him. When I laid hands on him I felt the power of the Holy Spirit come upon us, and it was then that he testified he felt like fire come down upon his head and through his body, and immediately a demon manifested from his gut and cramped him up. I commanded it to leave in the name of the Lord, and the pain did cease from him. –Am I sure that all the demons came out of him? –No, I’m not. I won’t pretend to, since I can’t see them. However, there has been some definite change in this man. He has been studying his Bible, praying every day, and seeking the Lord. His past life before ending up in prison is one of the knowing the depths of Satan, in drugs, sodomy, and kidnapping rings. Now he has confessed all those things to God as well as to us, and is seeking the Lord for complete, full salvation. He had a relationship with a woman that he broke off immediately, yet another woman came recently and he fell into sin to his own grief. He was in tears when we talked with him. We continue to spend time with him during our personal visitations and are teaching and counseling him by the Word of God. He is truly among the chief of sinners, and would be a GLORIOUS token of grace if he is truly born again and serving the Lord in victory over all the power of the enemy. Please pray for this young man –I don’t need to tell you his name, the Lord knows it.
There is another man in this prison who is in there for murder. He had supposedly repented and was even baptized when we got there, and told us that he’s saved and follows the Lord. We preached to him quite a bit, and he looks like a true Christian in the meetings. In fact, he’s the one who would bring his guitar and leads the worship songs at the beginning of each meeting. However, one night when I prayed for him back at home, I received a strong inner witness that he needs to be delivered from demon spirits. I said nothing about this to Lina, and we went to bed. That night, Lina had a dream that showed the same thing, that he was bound by demons and needed deliverance. We didn’t act on it right away; we waited. Within a couple weeks, he had a bad fall, got angry and cursed at one of the other men in the prison and almost fought with him. He then fell under serious condemnation, and went 3 days without reading the Bible or praying, in total defeat.
When we heard this, we sat down with him and talked, telling him that he was bound by demons and needed deliverance or else they will keep holding him in bondage. We told him that the Gospel is the remedy and that Christ could deliver him. We told him to examine his motives and to deeply repent from all sin and renounce those sins. And we prayed for him and in the name of the Lord, commanded the demons to leave. He started manifesting right away. Some of them came out in their usual nasty way, including the condemnation demon. He told us it felt like a heavy weight came off him, and that now he sees everything completely different and no longer feels depressed and condemned! He was amazed. However, they didn’t all come out, and I believe the reason is that his repentance is not complete and genuine. The next Sunday when we came to preach, he couldn’t even sit in the meeting without the other demons manifesting. As soon as we opened the meeting in prayer and sang a hymn, they started gripping him up, and he kept leaving to hack and cough and throw up. Those unclean spirits can’t stand the presence of the Holy Spirit. This man needs more prayer! He is being helped by grace, but has not entered into the fullness of the redemption that is in Christ! He is continually pressing in to seek the Lord, renouncing his sin and praying for deliverance. Please pray for him, that the Lord would set him free and create in him a clean heart, washed and made pure in the blood of the Lamb!
There are other men in this prison that we are ministering to as well. They are reading the Bible (and one of them listening to the audio Bible we gave him because he doesn’t know how to read) and they are showing some signs of real change. The Lord is touching their hearts, and we are praying that the miracle of regeneration would take place in them and make them new creations by grace.
I believe the Lord is really blessing our meetings on Sundays and confirming His word by His Spirit with conviction as we preach and teach on basic Gospel truths, emphasizing the Person and work of Christ, freedom from sin’s dominion, deliverance from Satan, true conversion, victorious Christian living, seeking the face of God, and so on. These men are hearing things they’ve never heard before, and things that are contrary to what all these other false religions are teaching them. In this prison, in addition to battling unbelief and sin of every kind, we are battling 7th Day Adventist doctrines, Jehovah-Witnesses, Catholics, humanistic psychologies, and more. It’s a real spiritual warfare going on as we earnestly contend for the faith and try to establish solid, pure, true Gospel foundations.
Some strongholds are being demolished in some of these men as we yield the weapon of the Word and hack and slash against these demonic powers.
In one meeting, as I was expounding on 1 John chapter 1 against hypocritical profession and about the nature of God as light, a young man 22 years of age broke down and wept, and interrupted saying, “I need to get right”. We dropped to our knees and started praying for him, as he did too, asking God to cleanse him. When I laid hands on him I felt the power of the Holy Spirit come upon us, and it was then that he testified he felt like fire come down upon his head and through his body, and immediately a demon manifested from his gut and cramped him up. I commanded it to leave in the name of the Lord, and the pain did cease from him. –Am I sure that all the demons came out of him? –No, I’m not. I won’t pretend to, since I can’t see them. However, there has been some definite change in this man. He has been studying his Bible, praying every day, and seeking the Lord. His past life before ending up in prison is one of the knowing the depths of Satan, in drugs, sodomy, and kidnapping rings. Now he has confessed all those things to God as well as to us, and is seeking the Lord for complete, full salvation. He had a relationship with a woman that he broke off immediately, yet another woman came recently and he fell into sin to his own grief. He was in tears when we talked with him. We continue to spend time with him during our personal visitations and are teaching and counseling him by the Word of God. He is truly among the chief of sinners, and would be a GLORIOUS token of grace if he is truly born again and serving the Lord in victory over all the power of the enemy. Please pray for this young man –I don’t need to tell you his name, the Lord knows it.
There is another man in this prison who is in there for murder. He had supposedly repented and was even baptized when we got there, and told us that he’s saved and follows the Lord. We preached to him quite a bit, and he looks like a true Christian in the meetings. In fact, he’s the one who would bring his guitar and leads the worship songs at the beginning of each meeting. However, one night when I prayed for him back at home, I received a strong inner witness that he needs to be delivered from demon spirits. I said nothing about this to Lina, and we went to bed. That night, Lina had a dream that showed the same thing, that he was bound by demons and needed deliverance. We didn’t act on it right away; we waited. Within a couple weeks, he had a bad fall, got angry and cursed at one of the other men in the prison and almost fought with him. He then fell under serious condemnation, and went 3 days without reading the Bible or praying, in total defeat.
When we heard this, we sat down with him and talked, telling him that he was bound by demons and needed deliverance or else they will keep holding him in bondage. We told him that the Gospel is the remedy and that Christ could deliver him. We told him to examine his motives and to deeply repent from all sin and renounce those sins. And we prayed for him and in the name of the Lord, commanded the demons to leave. He started manifesting right away. Some of them came out in their usual nasty way, including the condemnation demon. He told us it felt like a heavy weight came off him, and that now he sees everything completely different and no longer feels depressed and condemned! He was amazed. However, they didn’t all come out, and I believe the reason is that his repentance is not complete and genuine. The next Sunday when we came to preach, he couldn’t even sit in the meeting without the other demons manifesting. As soon as we opened the meeting in prayer and sang a hymn, they started gripping him up, and he kept leaving to hack and cough and throw up. Those unclean spirits can’t stand the presence of the Holy Spirit. This man needs more prayer! He is being helped by grace, but has not entered into the fullness of the redemption that is in Christ! He is continually pressing in to seek the Lord, renouncing his sin and praying for deliverance. Please pray for him, that the Lord would set him free and create in him a clean heart, washed and made pure in the blood of the Lamb!
There are other men in this prison that we are ministering to as well. They are reading the Bible (and one of them listening to the audio Bible we gave him because he doesn’t know how to read) and they are showing some signs of real change. The Lord is touching their hearts, and we are praying that the miracle of regeneration would take place in them and make them new creations by grace.
September 2008 - An Damaged Ear is Healed
On one occasion in a small village, I had preached at a house fellowship. After the meeting, there was a teenage girl who needed healing, but she was so shy that she went to her mother and asked her mother to ask us to pray for her. A couple of days prior, this girl had something rupture in her ear, and blood started coming out from it. She was in constant pain, had a constant headache ever since. Then, to make matters worse, a day later, a bug flew into her ear and they never got it out! So brother Otoniel and I anointed her with oil, and laying hands on her in the name of Jesus, prayed for healing. I felt a wave of what felt like heat pass between my hand and her head as we did. As soon as we finished praying, she was healed instantly. Her face was gripped with astonishment, she looked utterly amazed, and tears formed in her eyes. Lina asked her, “what is it?” and the girl said, “All the pain is completely gone!” Glory to the Lamb! It’s not our own power or holiness, but Jesus, and faith in His name, that made that girl whole! He’s still in the business of healing the afflicted to the glory of His name!
September 2008 - Poisoned Baby Recovers
One day, we attended a Pastor’s meeting where a number of the local pastors gather together to talk about current issues. It was here that we were able to meet a lot of them and to set up appointments to preach in their congregations. After the meeting, as we were talking with some of them, a women ran into the room in distress! She had tears in her eyes, and had a baby in her arms of about 2-3 years in age. About 30 minutes prior to this, the baby had taken a hold of a bottle of kitchen cleaner and drank it while the mother was in the shower. She got out of the shower to discover that he drank it. She decided to put him in the car and drive him to the meeting, hoping we would still be there to pray for him. When she brought him in, he was unconscious. We all prayed for him, and Lina and I laid hands on him in the name of Jesus. We both had a supernatural faith rise up within us, and we believed he would be healed. But, after we prayed, nothing happened. He was still unconscious. Everyone tried to wake him up. They kept saying his name loudly, shaking him (gently enough not to hurt him, but strong enough to wake any baby up), rocked him up and down, etc. trying to wake him up. Nothing worked. A pastor took his finger, lifted the baby’s eyelid to look at his eyes, and after doing so said, “you need to take him to the hospital immediately”. They were even holding his eyelids open and loudly saying his name trying to wake him, but not a response.
Then, Lina grabbed the child in her arms and whispered very softly, “wake up in the name of Jesus” and when she did, the baby jolted, like when somebody gets scared and jumps. When he jumped, his eyes opened for a split second, but then he immediately slumped back over and fell unconscious again. He was back out. Then, in a faith not my own, in the name of Jesus Christ, I laid hands on him and rebuked the poison and its effects and commanded it to be gone and for him to be healed, and Lina spoke “life” into the baby. Immediately, his eyes opened wide and he woke up perfectly well. He looked around at our faces, and got scared seeing strangers, and began crying! He was made whole by the power of the risen Christ! He didn’t fall back unconscious again, he didn’t throw up, and he even drank milk afterwards (he was still on milk). We talked to the mother days later and she confirmed that the only harm done to the baby was that the outside of his skin was burnt a little under his chin where the liquid dripped when he drank it! Is not the same Christ who worked wonders on earth 2,000 the same Christ who reigns in the Heavens and through His people now? Is not His power the same? Does He not still have compassion for the suffering and dying?
Then, Lina grabbed the child in her arms and whispered very softly, “wake up in the name of Jesus” and when she did, the baby jolted, like when somebody gets scared and jumps. When he jumped, his eyes opened for a split second, but then he immediately slumped back over and fell unconscious again. He was back out. Then, in a faith not my own, in the name of Jesus Christ, I laid hands on him and rebuked the poison and its effects and commanded it to be gone and for him to be healed, and Lina spoke “life” into the baby. Immediately, his eyes opened wide and he woke up perfectly well. He looked around at our faces, and got scared seeing strangers, and began crying! He was made whole by the power of the risen Christ! He didn’t fall back unconscious again, he didn’t throw up, and he even drank milk afterwards (he was still on milk). We talked to the mother days later and she confirmed that the only harm done to the baby was that the outside of his skin was burnt a little under his chin where the liquid dripped when he drank it! Is not the same Christ who worked wonders on earth 2,000 the same Christ who reigns in the Heavens and through His people now? Is not His power the same? Does He not still have compassion for the suffering and dying?
April 2008 - Heroin Withdrawals Disappear
At first we sat down with three men who wanted to talk to us. We shared the Gospel with them, explaining in more detail exactly who Jesus is and what He did. These three were desperate. One was a crystal meth addict, the other two heroin addicts (these are both the worst possible drugs to be addicted to). After laboring in the Word and attempting to get them to see the Gospel, and boost their faith, we moved on into prayer. The crystal meth addict wasn’t ready to serve the Lord; he said he doesn’t want to play games with God and receive anything from prayer if he’s not ready to serve him yet. So we exhorted him to continue to seek the Lord, and to read the Gospel of John, and he left. So we prayed with other two men, both of which are heroin addicts.Both of these men were doing terrible. They have been off heroin for a number of days. Going through heavy withdrawals. Covered in sweat. Unable to sleep or eat for days. In utter torment. It’s so sad. But after talking with them, both of them prayed to the Lord to confess their sins and ask for forgiveness, and asked Jesus to save them (and we didn’t lead them in a prayer and give them words, they did it themselves).So then we prayed for them. The first man we prayed for had a great MANY tract marks on his arms (wounds from the heroin needle). As we prayed for him and took authority in the name of Jesus over demonic power, a mighty cold chill came upon his whole body and he was freezing cold (a presumed demonic manifestation). As we continued to pray, it left. Then he felt a strong burning sensation in his stomach. We continued to pray, and that too, left. Then he felt better. We asked him if he was still experiencing withdrawals, and he said no, that they went away! Then immediately he began to get extremely sleepy. He was about to fall asleep on the spot. This is a good sign, because he had not slept in days, and the torment was preventing him from sleeping. But now, he couldn’t stay awake! Praise God! So we sent him up to room and told him to rest and gave him an assignment to read the Gospel of John. Update: in just a few days, the leaders of the rehab center, seeing such a drastic change in him, put this man in charge of leading the meetings and helping to administrate.
March 2008 - Miraculous Deliverance from Multiple Demons
There’s power in the pure, sinless, holy, victorious BLOOD of Jesus Christ!
We’ve been preaching in the drug rehab center since our last update. Praise God, truly, we’ve been seeing some genuine fruit brought for to His glory. Just wanted to share, real quick, an update from this place, that those of you who are praying for us can lift these things up before the Throne of Grace on our behalf.
There is a man named Francisco in this place. He got in about a month ago. Came in as a meth addict (for those who are not familiar with what this is, imagine pure cocaine times five in terms of addictive properties). He was in bad condition. We asked him, “What do you plan on doing when you get out of here”. And he said, “To be honest, I just want to go back and do drugs again”. That’s all he would ever say, even to the directors. I told him that Jesus could set him free, and he began to listen to us. As he sat down in a Bible study with us, he had all these questions. Questions like, “Why are all the thoughts of my heart only evil continually”, etc. And of course we would show him these things in Scripture, and explain to him his depraved heart and need for the new birth through faith in Christ. Finally, he agreed to let us pray for him. I explained to him the reality of the spiritual, of Satan, of demonic bondage, and how Christ defeated those demons, and he agreed to let us pray. As we did, and rebuked those demons, they began to manifest and come out, one after another. The whole process continued for probably about an hour or more.
Before we started, he was a skeptic, and seriously doubted if what we said was true about Christianity. However, when we finished, he was convinced, because he himself understood that demon spirits were reacting in him and coming out by the power of the name of Jesus. When we were done, his countenance was radically changed, and lit up, with a ray of hope in his eyes now. When we came back a few days later, the director, not knowing anything about the fact that Jesus wonderfully delivered this man from demon spirits (all he knew was that we were talking to him), came up to us as soon as we arrived. And he said, “There’s a huge change in Francisco! He would never show any ambition to change, but now he wants to change. All he would say before is, ‘I want to go back to do drugs’. But now he shows hope and desire to change. He would never even want to sit in on a meeting, but has requested to be let off kitchen duties tonight in order to hear you preach”. Praise the Lord!
So we were able to talk with Francisco after the meeting, and asked him, “how have you been, in terms of struggling with the temptation to go back to meth?” And his face lit up! And amazed, he said, “I haven’t even thought about it until you just mentioned it!” You see, it went from something driving and tormenting him continually, and being his only thought and plague all day and all night continually, to not thinking about it once for three days straight! Jesus is still in the business of setting the captives FREE!!! He now shows much hope, much hunger for the Word of God, and much desire to keep seeking God and see his life transformed. Please keep him in prayer, that a genuine miracle of regeneration be wrought out within his heart by the Holy Ghost. He is already a totally different person, but pray that the Lord would have His perfect work and save him to the uttermost.
We’ve been preaching in the drug rehab center since our last update. Praise God, truly, we’ve been seeing some genuine fruit brought for to His glory. Just wanted to share, real quick, an update from this place, that those of you who are praying for us can lift these things up before the Throne of Grace on our behalf.
There is a man named Francisco in this place. He got in about a month ago. Came in as a meth addict (for those who are not familiar with what this is, imagine pure cocaine times five in terms of addictive properties). He was in bad condition. We asked him, “What do you plan on doing when you get out of here”. And he said, “To be honest, I just want to go back and do drugs again”. That’s all he would ever say, even to the directors. I told him that Jesus could set him free, and he began to listen to us. As he sat down in a Bible study with us, he had all these questions. Questions like, “Why are all the thoughts of my heart only evil continually”, etc. And of course we would show him these things in Scripture, and explain to him his depraved heart and need for the new birth through faith in Christ. Finally, he agreed to let us pray for him. I explained to him the reality of the spiritual, of Satan, of demonic bondage, and how Christ defeated those demons, and he agreed to let us pray. As we did, and rebuked those demons, they began to manifest and come out, one after another. The whole process continued for probably about an hour or more.
Before we started, he was a skeptic, and seriously doubted if what we said was true about Christianity. However, when we finished, he was convinced, because he himself understood that demon spirits were reacting in him and coming out by the power of the name of Jesus. When we were done, his countenance was radically changed, and lit up, with a ray of hope in his eyes now. When we came back a few days later, the director, not knowing anything about the fact that Jesus wonderfully delivered this man from demon spirits (all he knew was that we were talking to him), came up to us as soon as we arrived. And he said, “There’s a huge change in Francisco! He would never show any ambition to change, but now he wants to change. All he would say before is, ‘I want to go back to do drugs’. But now he shows hope and desire to change. He would never even want to sit in on a meeting, but has requested to be let off kitchen duties tonight in order to hear you preach”. Praise the Lord!
So we were able to talk with Francisco after the meeting, and asked him, “how have you been, in terms of struggling with the temptation to go back to meth?” And his face lit up! And amazed, he said, “I haven’t even thought about it until you just mentioned it!” You see, it went from something driving and tormenting him continually, and being his only thought and plague all day and all night continually, to not thinking about it once for three days straight! Jesus is still in the business of setting the captives FREE!!! He now shows much hope, much hunger for the Word of God, and much desire to keep seeking God and see his life transformed. Please keep him in prayer, that a genuine miracle of regeneration be wrought out within his heart by the Holy Ghost. He is already a totally different person, but pray that the Lord would have His perfect work and save him to the uttermost.